Lunch

We had muffelettos for lunch in our enclosed courtyard.

Cafe du monde

We had breakfast of beignets. They're like carnival funnel cakes only better.

New Orleans, LA

We just got in to our room in the French Quarter. It's very late and we'll be sacking out soon, but first, you must see shots of the room. Not sure how well they'll come out without flash. I may have to re-take them in the morning. We're staying at the Hyatt in the French Quarter. The room is HUGE! The ceilings must be at least 20 feet high. We have glass doors that open onto an enclosed courtyard. I will probably have dreams that I'm a French Princess.

New Year's Resolution

I have been living in a rush, trying to do too much, for far too many years. I fear my friendships and personal relationships have suffered as a result. So this year I vow to take time and make time for others.

To take one's time, to make time, to spend time -
to go as slow as one wants or needs to; to use as much time as is required, to stop what you're doing to help another, to sit down and talk with a friend. Live life as if there is no hurry.

Use your heart, your hands, your feet -
Walk to work, to the grocery store, to the ice cream shop, to the farmer's market, make things with your hands for people who matter to you, invite someone out on sunny day, to walk in the woods, to have brunch, have a tea party, float in kayaks with friends because the journey is more important than the destination.

Write poetry, play with make-up and jewelry, go visit friends who are far away, then spend all the time you need, doing things they like to do. Give of yourself, think of others, do for others

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Here's hoping 2013 will be happy and prosperous for you all!

Christmas Cruise

We're back from our cruise. In ten days we visited a private island in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Grand Turk (Turks and Caicos Islands), Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba. We also sailed past Haiti and Cuba but didn't stop there. I was sea sick the entire trip, and also managed to pick up a 24 hour bug at the beginning of the trip. That said, I drugged myself with everything available, sucked it up, and went snorkeling a few times, kayaking, sailing on a catamaran, went swimming at numerous beaches and did some shopping. One thing I do want to mention, no matter how many times I heard Christmas carols being played on steel drums, it did not feel like Christmas. I had a good time in spite of the illness but am also happy to be back home for a few days. Yes, on Thursday I fly down to New Orleans, LA for a national history conference to interview 15 job applicants for our department. Three lucky people will later be flown to campus for a second round of interviews. I'm also teaching winter session, so back to work for me! Hope you all had a happy holiday.

I need a break!

The last 6 months have been very stressful with both jobs, working overloads, elderly family issues and a new dog. Tomorrow is my last final, once grades are in, I'm going on a cleaning, packing, and baking frenzy. I plan to get my Christmas cards and gifts out, then hop a plane to Florida, and get on a big ship to cruise the Caribbean for 10 days. It's not my idea of Christmas, but it's a great way to disconnect and relax, and that's exactly what I need. So hopefully the world won't end on the 21st, because that would really suck for the holidays. Have a happy one and stay safe.

Frustration

I try really hard to be a good teacher. I honestly like my students. I change up my lectures to keep them fresh. I search for books that are interesting, not too long, and easy to read so some of my students might actually read the assignments. I also change my paper assignments every semester to reduce the chance of cheating. I also make the paper assignments very specific, on unusual topics, often with local primary sources, to prevent cheating. I learned to do this after I found 16 papers in one semester where students had plagiarized. So when a student does cheat, after all the thought and hard work I put into creating an assignment, I feel a huge sense of betrayal. I just found two papers that were 98% identically. These two students turned in the same paper. The betrayal on this one is bigger, because I worked all semester with the one student, privately tutoring him after he'd been sick and missed a number of classes. I also told him to take all the time he needed to complete the paper. So to copy someone else's paper and hand it in, it hurts. *sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope all of you have a great day! Lambeau just completed his first 5k! And nobody got bit! :-)

Flooding from Sandy

This was the worst of our town's flooding. The river runs through the middle of the picture. You can see the tops of the pylons for the docks/piers to the left and the right. So the river over ran its sides into the surrounding blocks. We live about a mile from here and didn't have any flooding.

If you give a moose a muffin

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=if+you+give+a+moose+a+muffin&tnr=21&vid=&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DU.4586244161929436%26pid%3D15.1&tit=If+You+Give+A+Moose+a+Muffin

My life is very much like the children's story, If You Give A Moose A Muffin. I go to do one thing, which reminds me there's another thing I need to do, I go to do that, only to realize there's some item I need in order to do that item, then go off to the store, where I remember all the things I'm running out of at home, I get groceries, only to discover upon arriving home, that I forgot the very thing I went to the store to buy in the first place.

So that's what has been happening since May. MAY for Pete's sake, MAY! Of course, I am busy, I am accomplishing a lot, but I've gotten so busy, that I don't have any down time. I think to myself, "just get through the semester, then you'll have a break and don't take on so much next time." Then I find myself trying to help other people out of their scheduling binds, and before I know it, I am over scheduled again.

Once again I am teaching a double overload at school which causes stress with all the grading I have to do. So on the weekends I don't have grading, I like to get a lot of home projects done. Thus, every weekend is over scheduled trying to get so much done.

So this weekend I told myself I would relax. The only thing we had scheduled was a progressive dinner.

The weekend started out so promising. We went to the movies to see Cloud Atlas with a friend. After the movie, we got home, walked the dog, then stayed up late watching t.v. I slept in a little later than usual for me, got up and went to have bagels. I was on such a roll to have a relaxing weekend, so close.

I went to take a package to the post office and was near a favorite store of mine, so in keeping with my plan, I thought I'd go shopping for something nice.

While in the store, their garden stuff was 40% off. I found the heaviest duty rubber gloves I'd ever seen and decided they would be perfect for yard work. I make some purchases and head home. As I'm coming up the back walk I see saplings growing in our gutters. Hurricane Sandy is supposed to hit us tonight, so I think to myself, "I probably ought to clean the gutters. Hey, those new gloves will be great for that." So I get out the gloves and ladder and climb up to clean the gutters. I can't reach very well and the dog is trying to climb up the ladder behind me, which isn't safe, so I decide to go up on the roof to clean the gutters.

The cleaning of the gutters goes fine but when I turn around to come back through the window, I notice how blistered and peeling the paint is around the window. So of course I pick at the blistering paint. Then get paint for the window. I can't just paint the window sill because the paint on the side of the house is blistering too. So I decide to touch up the sill and the wall where it needs it. Then it's really noticeable where I painted, so I paint the whole side of the house and window frame. Then I notice how bad the rusty down spout looks and paint that too.

Can you see how one thing leads to another and why I'm always so busy? I've got to learn to go through life with blinders on and not get distracted and do more than I planned.